Seattle Steam's been running an enormous new biomass incinerator for some time down at the corner of Union and Western next to the Four Seasons. Does this mean we're all dead too?

In the fall of 2009, Seattle Steam converted to renewable energy and began burning clean urban waste wood as its primary source of fuel. This reduced the carbon footprint of Seattle Steam and its customers by 50 percent and provides a large boost to the region's sustainability goals.

http://www.seattlesteam.com/history.htm

It's a bit ironic that someone, anyone, in Shelton would complain about a wood-burning anything. That said, Tim Sheldon is a heel.

Sheldon is D in name only.

what @1 said.

if you'd learn how these things work, shelton residents, you'd chill out. it's the furthest thing from a 'giant burn barrel'. maybe your 'giant burn barrel' instantly incinerates chunks of wood in a howling sandstorm and uses the heat to boil water, but mine doesn't.

SS will give you a tour if you ask.

The population of Shelton is more like 10,000-14,000. 56,000 would describe the population of the entire county, which encompasses something like 1,000 square miles.

Sheldon can suck it. And if anyone has ever grown up in Mason county knows that something like this is definitely NOT what a town like Shelton needs.

This sounds like massive PR failure by ADAGE (assuming this plant is as wonderful as SS says theirs is). What do some of the citizen oversight organizations have to say about these sorts of BioMass plants? It can't be THAT bad or it wouldn't have gotten past WUTC right?

oh, BTW, @1: the SS biomass boiler didn't even complete commissioning before the silo got so bunged up it took them weeks to clear it with high pressure hoses and cherry pickers. "design flaw" is what a worker told me.

@9 that's funny. And a reminder that newer stuff isn't cut and dried. As the son of an engineer I'm always tickled to see projects where there's no clear roadmap to follow - sometimes you hit the point where you scramble to engineer a solution to the unforeseen fuckup your supergeniusness designed. That's where the rubber meets the road, man.

The Seattle Steam boiler is a fluidized bed, not too complex. The real concern is, after proven design flaws in something as simple as a feed silo, can their other solids handling units operate sufficiently to allow for continuous scrubber operation. Those of you who had the good fortune to view the feed silo debacle have front row seats to excessive sulfur compound, among others, release thanks to Stan Gent and his crack team of engineers.